+

Rockstar Games is continuing their wacky gore violence theme interlaced with criminal activity. Just like Grand Theft Auto III, this game also has an open-ended structure where you can just go around and check thing out, or do jobs for the gangs. The wacky roit theme with the coorporation-based government is an interesting twist, with anti-capitalist and trigger-happy humor combined.

All the missions are story-based and unique, and are are kind of involving in role-playing. You can escort people around giving a sense of comradery and teamwork. You chase people down giving a sense of preditorial instinct.

The roit theme does a good job of conveying a feeling of panic with bunches of people running around you scrabling to loot stores, and guards hearding towards you through the panicing croud.

Many characters to unlock. Many levels to complete. Plenty of depth.

There's a lot of ways to interact with your environment: smack foes or friends, pick up stuff and throw it, pick up weapons, blow up cars, smash store fronts, etc. All the interactions are wacky and make you go "WOW! COOL! FUN!" They tap into the player's appetite for destruction.

-

The gameplay is way too repeditive and simplistic. Every mission basically involves the same thing: fighting off guards, and fighting off the guards, which is just a matter of pressing X a bunch of times and moving around a little. It does not involve strategic thought at all. The mood of the game is repeditive, the music is repeditive, and the game play is repeditive.

The camera sometimes doesn't give you the information you need, and the controls often don't help you single out and manipulate certain objects. The control is sloppy and unrefined. This becomes especially annoying when you have to defend somebody or eliminate one guy running away and the camera and game controls don't work with you.

Lack of diversity. In Grand Theft Auto III there were many different ethnic gangs, types of people on the streets, types of neighborhoods, types of vehicles, and types of controls. In this game there is just one constant persona throughout the whole game, and the mood and environment stay the same throughout.

The people talk to you with text and not voice acting.

The points scoring things and menu interfacing takes too much away from escapism.

One of the most fun things to do in a roit is to go around town and collect free booty. If there was an option to just smash store fronts and collect stuff, or grab it from other people who are looting, then that would make the game more robust and fun. It is an important part of roiting that was left out.